Modding my Canon EOS 1000D

[Sivakis]

Hey all

I've not been posting here for like... FOREVER!

Work's been so busy that I have even let my barndoor tracker gather dust... after so much effort to build it... like doing so much to win a girl and, once won, neglects her.... hahah but i digress

So I'm about to get a new DSLR which means I got 3, giving me a good excuse to hard-mod the oldest for astrophotography

Anyway, 7 Month, wifey forbids me from shooting night sky. So with only a few more days to go, I decided I'm gonna mod my Canon EOS 1000D and remove the IR filter. Luckily it comes with a secondary clear filter so that means I don't really need a replacement filter.

Gonna be using the guide by Gary Honis and I'll try to post some pics as I do it.

Once done, when 7 Month over, I'll start breaking out my barndoor again for some trials and see how it goes.

Will be updating mod shots and trial shots into this thread.

Stay tuned!

[Sivakis]

Rawr!

Mod completed!

Haven't tested it yet but battery + memory card working fine and shots are working.

Still editing the process photos but here's an example of what went on:



I'll edit the rest of it and upload.

This thursday I hope is clear nights! My earliest test will be then

[Sivakis]

Ok, managed to get some time to sort this thing out...

So I decided to mod my Canon EOS 1000D.

Simple sequence of the process:

Camera:


Back panel removed, cable ready to be detached:


Sensor housing can be seen (silver plate):


Sensor housing with filters (removing the middle filter):


Filter housing detached:


Second filter removed:



Like Gary Honis, I ended up breaking the glass while trying to remove it. No love lost, just gotta be careful to remove all burrs or remaining shards that may remain glued to the frame.

Popped everything else back in (don't forget the 1st filter!).

Sensor housing was a little tricky to put back without scratching or touching the sensor, just gotta be careful.

Power up... works!

Autofocus is a bit off because of the missing element but that's fine since this will be a Manual Focus camera basically.

Coming up - 1st test shot

[Sivakis]

So Thursday was a bummer... red clouds everywhere.. sianz 1/2 but expected.

Friday wasn't any better, rain rain rain.

At 9.00pm, took a peek outside - Hey! No clouds!

Fast hands fast legs grabbed my gear and setup to test this modded camera.

Equipment/Settings:
Canon EOS 1000D (modded)
EF-S 50mm 1.8 (shot at 1.8)
ISO 1600
Shutter: 2 seconds

Guess what happened? I ended up only taking 1 shot!
ONE SHOT!
Then the clouds rolled in.. wah piang.

Anyway, this was the shot taken (taken directly from camera JPEG):

[Sivakis]

I looked at it - hmm not bad. Can see quite a bit of stars. Seems better than before mod (or maybe I was just trying to convince myself that it was worth tearing my camera apart LOL).

Then spotted something..... and I decided to see what I can do with this ONE photo...

After some work, I got this:

[Sivakis]

Getting all excited, I tweaked some more!

And Lo and Behold! From that ONE shot taken, I actually caught this!
(image is upper right corner of original corner - 100% crop)



Hello Lagoon Nebula

You know what? This mod was 100% worth it

[PETER LOO]

Congratulations Sivakis, well done , i mod my 450D & broke the flexi print inside liao. In doing the mod, i encountered a lot of dust sticking to sensor issue, how you keep away the dust, is it the white piece of mat used as shown in your pics help to stick away some dust ? (just my imagination ?)

[cataclysm]

Nice work!

[Sivakis]

Congratulations Sivakis, well done , i mod my 450D & broke the flexi print inside liao. In doing the mod, i encountered a lot of dust sticking to sensor issue, how you keep away the dust, is it the white piece of mat used as shown in your pics help to stick away some dust ? (just my imagination ?)

Ahh, in my pic that cloth is just a micro-fiber cloth.

450D and 1000D comes with 2 filters in front of the sensor. The outer filter (low pass-1) is connected to a data cable - this one controls the dust-removal function that happens when you turn the camera on and off. This one you keep.

The second filter (IR filter) is bluish in colour and is glued onto the black frame. this one we remove but keep the black frame bcause the 1st filter will sit on it.

So, by removing only the IR filter, you continue to protect the sensor via the low pass-1 (aka dust removal).

Gary Honis described this pretty well here - http://ghonis2.ho8.com/rebelmod450d1.html

He then describes the low pass-1 (keep) and IR filter (remove) here: http://ghonis2.ho8.com/rebelmod450d4.html

Hope this helps

[Airconvent]

Thanks for sharing Sivakis. Interesting Mod..and probably justification to buy a brand new "normal" camera now ..haha (hopefully its a Pentax K50!)